Asymmetric Language Switch Benefits From Comprehension to Production in Chinese Learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL): Rethinking Cross-Modality Language Control

Aims and Objectives: This study examined whether bilingual language control is shared across comprehension and production or supported by separate mechanisms in a dissimilar language pair. Specifically, we investigated whether Chinese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) show asymmetric switch costs in comprehension-to-production (C-to-P) language switching. Design: Thirty-three Chinese EFL learners completed a joint language switch paradigm combining picture naming (production) and semantic categorization (comprehension). Language switching in picture naming was triggered by interleaved categorization in Chinese or English. Data and Analysis: Reaction times were analyzed using linear mixed-effects models. Findings: Participants showed a switch benefit in the L1 naming block but no switch effect in the L2 block. This asymmetry is inconsistent with both shared- and separate-control accounts and instead suggests a major contribution of modality control, particularly in the L1 block. Originality: The study provides initial evidence for asymmetric switch benefits in C-to-P language switching and highlights language similarity as a key factor of modality and cross-modality language control. Implications: We propose the Multimodal Inhibitory Control (MIC) model as a framework for predicting control demands across tasks, language pairs, and dominance profiles.